The invention describes a ski binding with a toe-holding unit and a heel-holding unit and release mechanisms, which are integrated in the latter and can be set to different releasing forces, and a longitudinal guidance device, detachably fastened on the ski, for the toe-holding and/or heel-holding unit, and a connecting element which is movably connected to the toe-holding unit and/or heel-holding unit and is flexibly deformable vertically to a mounting surface of the toe-holding and/or heel-holding unit but resistant to tension.
A ski binding is already known--according to German Patent Specification 3,109,754--in which a toe-holding or a heel-holding unit of a ski binding is arranged adjustably relative to a longitudinal guide connected fixedly to a ski. The toe-holding unit and the heel-holding unit of this ski binding are moreover connected to each other in an articulated fashion via a connecting element. The toe-holding unit can then be set with one and the same arresting device both with respect to a notched strip connected to the longitudinal guide and in its relative position with respect to the connecting element. By unscrewing an arresting pin of the arresting device, which pin can be adjusted via a thread in the toe-holding unit perpendicularly to a mounting surface of the same, the movement of the toe-holding unit can be released while maintaining connection between the toe-holding unit and the connecting element, so that the toe-holding and heel-holding units, which are connected to each other via the connecting element, can be adjusted jointly relative to the ski in the longitudinal direction of the same. Once the ski binding, consisting of toe-holding and heel-holding units, has reached the new position on the ski, it can be fixed again by screwing in the arresting pin. If, on the other hand, the position of the toe-holding unit is to be changed with respect to the connecting element, the toe-holding unit can be pulled out from the longitudinal guide by means of the connecting element once the arresting pin has been loosened, whereupon it can be placed back onto the connecting element in a changed relative position and pushed back into the longitudinal guide in the new relative position with respect to the connecting element.
In order to simplify this adjustment of the relative position between the toe-holding unit or the heel-holding unit and the connecting element, it is also envisaged in the case of this ski binding that the heel-holding unit resting on the connecting element is mounted free from play displaceably in height in an own longitudinal guide, the connecting element having a serrated strip or recesses arranged one after the other in a row, the spacing of which corresponds essentially to a pitch of a thread of a setting screw. The setting screw is, for its part, mounted rotatably in the housing of the heel-holding unit. By turning the setting screw, the heel-holding unit can now be adjusted in the longitudinal direction of the ski relative to the connecting element. Consequently, a distance between the toe-holding unit and the heel-holding unit can be set and a corresponding pretensioning force attained between this unit and the ski boot.
Furthermore, it is also already known--according to European Patent Specification 84,324--to provide the toe-holding unit with a swivel lever extending over its upper side. The said lever is able to swivel on the end face of the toe-holding unit away from the heel-holding unit about an axis running parallel to the mounting surface and transversely to the longitudinal centre axis of the ski binding. The swivel lever also has a continuation, which engages underneath a swivel arm upon swivelling in the direction of the toe-holding unit away from the heel-holding unit. In a position up against the upper side of the toe-holding unit, the swivel arm is pressed under resilient pretension against a notched strip, so that an arresting pin is pressed into the recesses of the notched strip and consequently the position of the toe-holding unit with respect to the ski is fixed in the longitudinal direction of the ski. If, on the other hand, the swivel lever is swivelled forwards, the catch and the notched strip disengage and the toe-holding unit can be displaced freely relative to the notched strip.